Marine Biology News

November 4, 2024

Top Headlines

Algae Research Provides Insight on Immune Health

Oct. 30, 2024 — Marine animals like jellyfish, corals and sea anemones often live with algae inside their cells in a symbiotic relationship. The animals give the algae nutrients and a place to live; in return, algae give the animals some of the food they make from ...

Scientists Examine How Wastewater Practices in Florida Keys Impact Water Quality

Nov. 1, 2024 — Wastewater contains nutrients that can overfeed algae, leading to harmful algal blooms and pollution issues in the ocean and other waterways. A new study tracked how these nutrients migrate from ...

Sinuses Prevented Prehistoric Crocodile Relatives from Deep Diving

Oct. 29, 2024 — Paleobiologists have found that the sinuses of ocean dwelling relatives of modern-day crocodiles prevented them from evolving into deep divers like whales and ...

New Genetic Web Tool to Help Restore Climate-Resilient Marine Ecosystems

Oct. 30, 2024 — In the face of increased human pressures and climate change, a team of scientists have launched a new online tool to assist marine managers and restoration experts to bolster the resilience of marine habitat-forming species. The 'Reef Adapt' ...

Latest Headlines

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Remote Control Eddies: Upwelled Nutrients Boost Productivity Around Hawaiian Islands

Oct. 31, 2024 — Oceanographers showed that eddies on the leeward side of the Hawaiian Islands can supply nutrients, not only locally, but also to the opposite side ...

New Methods for Whale Tracking and Rendezvous Using Autonomous Robots

Oct. 31, 2024 — Today, a research team has proposed a new reinforcement learning framework with autonomous drones to find sperm whales and predict where they will ...

Oceanographers Record the Largest Predation Event Ever Observed in the Ocean

Oct. 29, 2024 — In the largest predation event ever recorded, researchers observed capelin shoaling off the coast of Norway, where a swarm of cod overtook them, ...

Newly Discovered Cyanobacteria Could Help Sequester Carbon from Oceans and Factories

Oct. 29, 2024 — What if a microbe could help curb the climate crisis? Meet UTEX-3222, aka 'Chonkus,' a cyanobacterium discovered living in the volcanic CO2 seeps off ...

Weddell Seals in the Antarctic Strategically Time Their Most Extreme Dives to Maximize Foraging

Oct. 29, 2024 — Weddell seals in Erebus Bay, Antarctica, may look like couch potatoes when they are resting on ice. However, these seals, which are the southernmost ...

Climate, Dead Zones and Fish: Solving a 'Wicked Problem' in Lake Erie and Beyond

Oct. 28, 2024 — A research collaboration has developed a simple model to help inform the complex decision-making that goes into managing water quality and fishery ...

Giant Clam Declared Critically Endangered After the Latest Assessment

Oct. 28, 2024 — Once abundant, the massive, colorful clam is now locally extinct in many regions, with a critical drop in population due to overfishing and climate ...

A Natural Climate Change Laboratory in Japan Reveals the Adaptation Dynamics of Fishers

Oct. 25, 2024 — A new scientific study reveals the complex relationship between the impacts of climate change and the adaptive responses of coastal fishers in the ...

Dolphins Sense Military Sonar at Much Lower Levels Than Regulators Predict

Oct. 23, 2024 — Scientists have directly measured the behavioral responses of some of the most common marine mammals to military sonar. And the finding that surprised them most was that these animals were sensitive ...

Breathing Deep: A Metabolic Secret of Ethane-Consuming Archaea Unraveled

Oct. 23, 2024 — Scientists characterize novel enzymes from deep-sea microbes with a key function in the ethane degradation process, revealing surprises in the metabolism of these ...

Researchers Use the Sounds of Healthy Coral Reefs to Encourage Growth of a New Species of Coral Larvae

Oct. 23, 2024 — Healthy coral reefs echo with a chorus of grunts and purrs from fish feeding, looking for mates, or defending their territories, underscored by the persistent crackling of snapping shrimp. Larval ...

Paws of Polar Bears Sustaining Ice-Related Injuries in a Warming Arctic

Oct. 22, 2024 — Polar bears in some parts of the high Arctic are developing ice buildup and related injuries to their feet. The changes appear to be an unexpected consequence of climate change, related to changing ...

Researcher Works to Preserve the White Shark in the Mediterranean Sea

Oct. 22, 2024 — Biologists are working to save one of the most endangered white shark populations on the planet. The research team located signs of the remaining white sharks in the Sicilian ...

Creating a Spatial Map of the Sea: New Research Visualizes How Fishing Communities Can Change Fishing Habits to Adapt to Climate Change

Oct. 21, 2024 — In a massive research project spanning five years and stretching the length of the Northeast seaboard, scientists have created a spatial map of the sea that shows how individual fishing communities ...

American Lobster Population, Habitat Preferences Shifting, Study Finds

Oct. 18, 2024 — Scientists found that from 1995-2021, occupancy of boulder habitats by lobsters dropped 60%. Meanwhile, the number of lobsters residing in sediment or featureless ledge habitats increased 633% and ...

Better Ocean Connectivity Boosts Reef Fish Populations

Oct. 18, 2024 — A new study has found that oceanographic connectivity (the movement and exchange of water between different parts of the ocean) is a key influence for fish abundance across the Western Indian Ocean ...

New Method for Measuring Luminescence Lifetime Offers Breakthrough in Scientific Imaging

Oct. 17, 2024 — Researchers introduce an innovative approach to image luminescence lifetimes. This simple approach uses readily-available cost-effective equipment, paving the way for advanced studies of chemical ...

Plankton Balloon to Six Times Their Size in Newly Discovered Mode of Oceanic Travel

Oct. 17, 2024 — Many plankton journey from the cold, dark depths of our oceans to the surface, only to eventually drift down again into the darkness in a perpetual rhythm. Yet, how single-celled phytoplankton, most ...

New Discovery Reveals How Diatoms Capture Carbon Dioxide So Effectively

Oct. 17, 2024 — Tiny diatoms in the ocean are masters at capturing carbon dioxide from the environment. They fix up to 20 percent of the Earth's CO2. A research team has now discovered a protein shell in these ...

Plastic Pollution Sounds Just Like Food to Deep-Diving Whales

Oct. 17, 2024 — To whales that hunt with soundwaves in lightless ocean depths, a torn plastic party balloon and a delicious squid may appear remarkably similar, according to a study. Underwater acoustic testing with ...

Aquaculture Uses Far More Wild Fish Than Previously Estimated, Study Finds

Oct. 17, 2024 — A study suggests that global fish farming, or aquaculture, may rely on significantly larger quantities of wild-caught ocean fish than previously calculated. The study is part of a special issue ...

Alaska's Iliamna Lake Harbor Seals Genetically Isolated from Entire Pacific Ocean

Oct. 16, 2024 — Alaska's Iliamna Lake harbor seals have been difficult to study because of their remoteness. They weren't even identified as harbor seals until 2013. Now, a new genetic study has found ...

One in Three Plants Call Islands Home: Many at Risk

Oct. 16, 2024 — From Tasmania to Madagascar to New Guinea, islands make up just over five per cent of Earth's land yet are home to 31 per cent of the world's plant species. A new study shows that of all ...

Scientists Have Successfully Bred Corals to Improve Their Heat Tolerance

Oct. 14, 2024 — A new study has shown that selective breeding can lead to a modest rise in coral heat tolerance. The study documents the world s first effort to selectively breed adult corals for enhanced heat ...

Severe Cold-Water Bleaching and Mortality of Deep-Water Reef Observed in the Eastern Tropical Pacific

Oct. 11, 2024 — New study documents a severe coral bleaching event occurring in a deep coral reef that resulted in high rates of coral mortality. Unlike many bleaching events, this was driven by the presence of ...

Evolution in Real Time

Oct. 11, 2024 — Snails on a tiny rocky islet evolved before scientists' eyes. The marine snails were reintroduced after a toxic algal bloom wiped them out from the skerry. While the researchers intentionally ...

The Bright and Dark Sides of Pacific Salmon Biotransport

Oct. 9, 2024 — Each year millions of Pacific salmon make a grand journey from the ocean to their freshwater spawning grounds at the end of their life cycles. This migration has rippling effects through food webs ...

Plenty More Fish in the Sea? Environmental Protections Account for Around 10 Percent of Fish Stocks on Coral Reefs

Oct. 7, 2024 — New research shows that international conservation efforts account for approximately 10 percent of fish stocks on coral ...

A Compost in the Sea That Produces Oxygen

Oct. 7, 2024 — Researchers studied the fate of the material produced by Posidonia seagrass meadows. This study, carried out in the Mediterranean Sea at STARESO, shows that the dead leaves of what is commonly known ...

Whale Shark Shipping Collisions May Increase as Oceans Warm

Oct. 7, 2024 — Global warming could increase the threat posed to whale sharks from large ships, according to a new ...